87-year-old Clean Ganga Activist Dies After Fasting for 111 Days

Haridwar: Environmentalist G D Agarwal, who has been fasting for over 100 days for a clean River Ganga, being forcibly taken to the hospital after his health detriorated in Haridwar, Wednesday, Oct 10, 2018. (PTI Photo) (PTI10_10_2018_000143B)

On Wednesday Sanand was forcibly shifted to the AIIMS hospital from his Matri Sadan ashram after his health deteriorated significantly.

Dehradun: Eighty seven-year-old environmentalist Prof GD Agarwal alias Swami Gyanswarup Sanand, who was fasting for the past 111 days demanding a clean Ganga, died in Haridwar on Thursday.

On Wednesday he was forcibly shifted to the AIIMS hospital from his Matri Sadan ashram after his health deteriorated significantly.

Official sources revealed that the fasting seer died around 1 pm on Thursday. In his last hand written press release, Sanand said that the level of potassium in his blood was alarmingly low.

The former IIT professor was agitating since June this year demanding that Ganga river should flow ‘undisrupted’ and that all ongoing hydro power projects on the Ganga basin should be stopped. He has also been demanding enactment of the Ganga Protection and Management Act.

Swami Sanand was also a member of National River Ganga Basin Authority during the UPA tenure. In 2010, he fasted for 38 days seeking scrapping of 600 MW Lohari Nagpala project on Bhagirathi River as it “hampers” free flow of water. Later, a three-member group of ministers scrapped the project.

In fact, this is the second death of a fasting seer demanding undisrupted flow of Ganga. In 2011, Swami Nigamanand (36) of Matri Sadan died after fasting for more than 2 months, seeking a ban on illegal mining in Ganga river.